Panic strikes Hodiedah as polio breaks out [Archives:2005/837/Front Page]
Minister of Health and Population Dr Mohammed al-Numi accompanioned by the governor of Hodeidah inaugurated a campaign of vaccination against polio in all districts of Hodeidah in the wake of an appearance of polio cases there.
The minister of Health on Tuesday said, that the cases of polio discovered there were six, whereas a medical source close tho the vaccination campaign has said that the number of polio cases has exceeded 50 cases.
Dr Mohammed al-Numi said that the cases were discovered in Alluhayah, al-Mansurah and the city of Hodiedah. The disease may have been imported by pilgrims returning from Mecca or by people coming from African countries. The disease appeared to have been on the verge of eradication in early 2004, but since than, it spread to several countries across Africa and Saudi Arabia.
Four children paralyzed by polio have been found after ten stool samples examined, according to the minister of health who also said that other stool sample examinations are being carried out in Oman and in the US. The results will be available May 15th and on the basis that the genetic source of the disease will be known.
The minister denied reports that the vaccine drops given to children recently might be behind the appearance of polio which had not been seen in Yemen since 1999. “This is not true at all.We receive the vaccination drops from the UNICEF,” the minister said.
In response, the ministry of health and the World Health Organization are planning immunization drives for May and July in an effort to deliver drops of oral polio vaccine into the mouths of all five million Yemeni children. Al-Numi said that the ministry in cooperation with the UNICEF and WHO are conducting vaccinations, targeting around 560, 000 under the age of five. in fear of any other cases to be discovered. “Our teams are now going from door to door,” he said
The Yemeni children found to have polio, aged from18 months to 7 years, are all situated in Hodiedah. They first showed signs of paralysis in February or early March, Dr. Mohamed H. Wahdan, the W.H.O's Eastern Mediterranean polio coordinator told Reuters. In poor countries, it can take weeks to confirm a polio case, because stool samples must be sent to distant laboratories.
All of the children had been vaccinated, Dr. Wahdan said, but it is apparently not enough. This might disclose allegations that corrupt officials at the ministry of health office in Hodiedah have a hand in the problem.
In countries with hot weather, open sewers and many other intestinal viruses, it can take six to eight doses of vaccines to produce the same immunity that three or four do in cooler, cleaner countries.
Only about one case in 200 leads to paralysis, so there could be at least 800 more carriers in Yemen, with Dr. Wahdan expecting to find more cases.
A Saudi official said earlier this year that tens of thousands of people enter his country illegally each month through Yemen.
Sudan is having a major polio outbreak, particularly in Port Sudan, a Red Sea ferry port.
All the migrating strains originated in Nigeria. Three large Muslim states in northern Nigeria stopped vaccinating in 2003 after rumors spread that the vaccine was a Western plot to sterilize Muslim women, and that it transmitted AIDS, as well that it contained pork products.
They resumed vaccinations in mid-2004 after entreaties from top Muslim clerics and after state officials visited foreign vaccine factories. But by then new cases were turning up from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and as far south as Botswana.
The global number of polio cases has been driven down from 350,000 in 1988 to 1,243 last year.
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